Heat insulation door and refrigeration appliance with the heat insulation door

ABSTRACT

A refrigeration appliance with a heat insulation door. The heat insulation door has a door body with a multilayer structure, including: a heat insulation vacuum glass module, the vacuum glass module including superposed first glass and second glass having a first interval, and the first glass is located in front of the second glass along the front-to-rear direction of the door; and a front decoration plate located in front of the vacuum glass module to cover the first glass, and in a width and/or length direction of the first glass, the front decoration plate has a protruding portion that extends out of an edge of the vacuum glass module. The appearance and attractiveness of the heat insulation door is improved, and also the breaking probability of the vacuum glass module is reduced and the user is protected against injury.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. § 119, of Chinesepatent application CN 201611138454.0, filed Dec. 12, 2016; the priorapplication is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of refrigeration, inparticular to a refrigeration appliance and a heat insulation doorthereof.

Related Art

A door of a traditional refrigeration appliance (such as a refrigerator)is generally formed by foaming, and a user cannot see the interior of arefrigeration appliance from outside. The refrigeration applianceadopting a glass door provides the possibility for the user to observethe interior of a refrigeration space without opening the door. However,for a solution adopting a vacuum glass door, since a distance betweentwo layers of glass in the vacuum glass door is very small, the colorfulcrystal process cannot be carried out, so that the appearanceattractiveness is poor.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide an improved heatinsulation door in order to solve at least one of the technical problemsdescribed above.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides aheat insulation door for a refrigeration appliance, comprising a doorbody of a multilayer structure, wherein the door body comprises: a heatinsulation vacuum glass module, wherein the vacuum glass modulecomprises superposed first glass and second glass having a firstinterval, and the first glass is located in front of the second glassalong a front-to-rear direction of the door; and a front decorationplate located in front of the vacuum glass module to shield the firstglass; and in a width and/or length direction of the first glass, thefront decoration plate has a protruding portion that extends out of anedge of the vacuum glass module.

Compared with the prior art, the technical solution of the presentinvention has the following advantages: the front decoration plate isdisposed in front of the vacuum glass module, the front decoration plateshields the vacuum glass module and extends out of the edge of thevacuum glass module at least along one direction, so that a decorationeffect can be achieved by patterns on the front decoration plate, andother parts such as a doorframe can be shielded by a protruding portion,thereby improving the appearance attractiveness of the door.

In some embodiments, along the front-to-rear direction of the door, theprotruding portion completely shields the doorframe, so that thedoorframe is concealed behind the door, thereby improving the visualattractiveness of the front surface of the heat insulation door.

Optionally, a first sealing portion is disposed between an edge of thefirst glass and an edge of the second glass to enable the first intervalto form an enclosed space.

Optionally, there is a second interval between the front decorationplate and the vacuum glass module.

Optionally, a second sealing portion is disposed between an edge of thefront decoration plate and an edge of the vacuum glass module to enablethe second interval to form an enclosed space.

Optionally, the door body further comprises a rear protective layerlocated behind the second glass along a front-to-rear direction and usedfor shielding the second glass. The rear protective layer is used forprotecting the vacuum glass module at the back thereof and can be usedas a decorative layer on the inner side of the heat insulation door.

Optionally, in a width and/or length direction of the first glass, theprotruding portion of the front decoration plate extends out of the rearprotective layer.

Optionally, there is a third interval between the rear protective layerand the vacuum glass module.

Optionally, a third sealing portion is disposed between an edge of therear protective layer and an edge of the vacuum glass module to enablethe third interval to form an enclosed space.

Optionally, the rear protective layer is bonded to the vacuum glassmodule.

Optionally, the rear protective layer comprises a protective film thatadheres to the second glass.

Optionally, the heat insulation door further comprises a doorframesurrounding the vacuum glass module, wherein the doorframe comprises: afirst cooperative wall located on a rear side of the protruding portionand connected to the protruding portion; a second cooperative walllocated behind the first cooperative wall along the front-to-reardirection; a connecting wall connecting the first cooperative wall andthe second cooperative wall; and along the front-to-rear direction, thevacuum glass module is located between the first cooperative wall andthe second cooperative wall. As can be seen, along the front-to-reardirection, the vacuum glass module and the rear protective layer arelocated between the first cooperative wall and the second cooperativewall.

Optionally, the second cooperative wall is located behind the vacuumglass module along the front-to-rear direction, and the vacuum glassmodule is directly or indirectly connected to the second cooperativewall.

Optionally, the door body is provided with a sealing portion at theedges of two adjacent layer structures having an interval, andprojections of the sealing portions are overlapped with each other alongthe front-to-rear direction.

Optionally, the second cooperative wall covers the sealing portion.

Optionally, the rear protective layer is a toughened glass plate, acolorful crystal glass plate, or a plastic plate.

Optionally, the front decoration plate is a colorful crystal glassplate.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide an improvedrefrigeration appliance, and the refrigeration appliance comprises theabove heat insulation door.

Other features which are considered as characteristic for the inventionare set forth in the appended claims.

Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodiedin a refrigeration appliance, it is nevertheless not intended to belimited to the details shown, since various modifications and structuralchanges may be made therein without departing from the spirit of theinvention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.

The construction and method of operation of the invention, however,together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be bestunderstood from the following description of specific embodiments whenread in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional structural schematic diagram of arefrigeration appliance of embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-section schematic diagram of a heat insulation door ofembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a layer structural schematic diagram of a door bodyof the heat insulation door of embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a local cross-section schematic diagram of the heat insulationdoor of embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a local cross-section schematic diagram of the heat insulationdoor of another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The foregoing objectives, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present embodiment provides a refrigerationappliance R and a heat insulation door D for the refrigeration applianceR. The refrigeration appliance R may be a refrigerator or other electricappliances with a refrigeration space.

As shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the heat insulation door Dcomprises a door body 10 of a multilayer structure and a doorframe 20.The door body 10 comprises a heat insulation vacuum glass module 11,wherein the vacuum glass module 11 comprises superposed first glass 11 aand second glass 11 b having a first interval 10 a, and the first glass11 a is located in front of the second glass 11 b along thefront-to-rear direction X of the door. In addition, the door body 10further comprises a front decoration plate 12 located in front of thevacuum glass module 11 and used for shielding the first glass 11 a.

It shall be noted that in the present application, without otherwisespecified, the “front-to-rear direction” refers to the front-to-reardirection of the door, i.e. a thickness direction of the door. The“front” is a direction pointing to a front surface of the door, and the“back” is a direction pointing to a back surface of the door. The “innerside” refers to one side, close to the center of the door body, of aplane in which the door body is located, i.e. one side away from theedge of the door.

In a width and/or length direction of the first glass 11A, the frontdecoration plate 12 is provided with a protruding portion 12 a thatextends out of the edge of the vacuum glass module 11, and FIG. 2 onlyshows the protruding portion 12 a on one side. The protruding portion 12a can be used for shielding other parts, for example, can be used forpartially or completely shielding the doorframe 20. In the presentembodiment, along the front-to-rear direction of the door, theprotruding portion 12 a completely shields the doorframe 20.

The present invention has the advantages that the front decoration plateis disposed in front of the vacuum glass module, the front decorationplate shields the vacuum glass module and extends out of the edge of thevacuum glass module at least along one direction, so that on one hand,the front decoration plate can play a decoration role to improve theappearance attractiveness of the heat insulation door, and can also beused for protecting the glass module to prevent the glass module frombeing directly exposed to a range that a user can reach, therebypreventing the breaking probability, and also preventing the brokenglass module from injuring the user. On the other hand, the protrudingportion can be used for shielding a doorframe, so that the doorframe isconcealed behind the door, and the attractiveness is better.

The front decoration plate 12 may be a toughened glass plate, a colorfulcrystal glass plate or a plastic plate, and is preferably the colorfulcrystal glass plate.

In the door body 10 of a multilayer structure, a sealing portion isdisposed between two adjacent layer structures that are spaced so as toform a heat insulation space between two adjacent layer structures. Asshown in FIG. 3, a first sealing portion S1 is disposed between an edgeof the first glass 11 a and an edge of the second glass 11 b in thevacuum glass module 11 to enable the first interval 10 a to form anenclosed space. Generally speaking, the first sealing portion S1 is inan annular shape surrounding the edge of the vacuum glass module 11.

Meanwhile, there is a second interval 10 b between the front decorationplate 12 and the vacuum glass module 11. A second sealing portion S2 isdisposed between an edge of the front decoration plate 12 and an edge ofthe vacuum glass module 11 to enable the second interval 10 b to form anenclosed space. The first sealing portion S2 is also basically in anannular shape surrounding the vacuum glass module 11. In comparison tothe first interval 10 a between the first glass 11 a and the secondglass 11 b in the vacuum glass module 11, the second interval 10 bbetween the front decoration plate 12 and the vacuum glass module 11 canbe slightly bigger so as to form a hollow space.

Generally speaking, the second sealing portion S2 is also in an annularshape surrounding the edge of the vacuum glass module 11. It can be seenfrom FIG. 3 that along the front-to-rear direction of the door,projections of the second sealing portion S2 and the first sealingportion S1 on a same edge are at least partially overlapped.

As shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4, the door body 10 further comprises a rearprotective layer 13 located behind the second glass 11 b along thefront-to-rear direction X and used for shielding the second glass 11 b.The rear protective layer 13 is used for protecting the vacuum glassmodule 11 at the back thereof and can be used as a decorative layer onthe inner side of the heat insulation door D. The rear protective layer13 may be a toughened glass layer, a colorful crystal glass layer, or aplastic plate.

The rear protective layer 13 may be disposed at an interval from thevacuum glass module 11 and a third interval 10 c is formed. A thirdsealing portion S3 is disposed between an edge of the rear protectivelayer 13 and an edge of the vacuum glass module 11 to enable the thirdinterval 10 c to form an enclosed space. In general, the third sealingportion S3 is also basically in an annular shape surrounding the vacuumglass module 11.

It shall be noted that in a width and/or length direction of the firstglass 11 a, i.e. in the length or width direction of the door body 10,the protruding portion 12 a of the front decoration plate 12 extends outof the rear protective layer 13. It can be seen from FIG. 2 that thedimension and the shape of the rear protective layer 13 are basicallyconsistent with the dimension and the shape of the vacuum glass module11 so as to completely shield the vacuum glass module 11.

It shall be noted that the intervals between the front decoration plate12 and the vacuum glass module 11 and between the rear protection layer13 and the vacuum glass module 11 may be an air layer or an inert gaslayer.

In some other embodiments, as shown in FIG. 5, the rear protective layer13 may also be bonded to the vacuum glass module 11. In addition, therear protective layer 13 may also comprise a protective film thatadheres to the second glass 11 b, or may be a protective film thatadheres to the second glass 11 b.

As shown in FIG. 4, the doorframe 20 surrounds the vacuum glass module11, the doorframe 20 can be divided into a side frame portion 21 and arear frame portion 22, the side frame portion 21 is located outside aperipheral surface of the vacuum glass module 11, and the rear frameportion 22 is located at the back of the vacuum glass module 11 alongthe front-to-rear direction X of the door.

The doorframe 20 is internally provided with a first cooperative wall 21a located in front of the rear frame portion 22 and located at the backof the protruding portion 12 a, a second cooperative wall 22 a facingthe back of the vacuum glass module 11, and a connecting wall 21 bconnecting the first cooperative wall 21 a and the second cooperativewall 22 a.

Specifically, the first cooperative wall 21 a and the connecting wall 21b are disposed on the side frame portion 21, and the second cooperativewall 22 a is disposed on the rear frame portion 22. The connecting wall21 b is located on the inner side of the side frame portion 21 and theouter side of the rear frame portion 22 and surrounds a peripheral edgeof the vacuum glass module 11. Along the front-to-rear direction X, thevacuum glass module 11 and the rear protective layer 13 are locatedbetween the first cooperative wall 21 a and the second cooperative wall22 a. The protruding portion 12 a is connected to the first cooperativewall 21 a, and the vacuum glass module 11 may be directly or indirectlyconnected to the second cooperative wall 22 a. In the presentembodiment, the rear frame portion 22 and the door body 10 are bonded byusing glue through the second cooperative wall 22 a.

The second cooperative wall 22 a covers all sealing areas, i.e. thefirst sealing portion S1, the second sealing portion S2 and the thirdsealing portion S3 in the door body.

Although the present invention is disclosed as above, the presentinvention is not limited thereto. Various changes and modifications maybe made by any technical skilled in the art without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention, and the protection scope ofthe present invention shall be defined by the scope of the claims.

1. A heat insulation door for a refrigeration appliance, the heatinsulation door comprising: a door body having a multilayer structure,said door body including: a heat insulation vacuum glass module, saidvacuum glass module including superposed first glass and second glass,having a first interval between the first glass and the second glass,and the first glass is located in front of the second glass along afront-to-rear direction of the door; and a front decoration platedisposed in front of the vacuum glass module to cover the first glass,the front decoration plate having a protruding portion in a width and/orlength direction of the first glass, the protruding portion extendingout of an edge of the vacuum glass module.
 2. The heat insulation dooraccording to claim 1, wherein a first sealing portion is providedbetween an edge of the first glass and an edge of the second glass, toenable the first interval to form an enclosed space.
 3. The heatinsulation door according to claim 1, wherein there is a second intervalbetween the front decoration plate and the vacuum glass module.
 4. Theheat insulation door according to claim 3, wherein a second sealingportion is provided between an edge of front decoration plate and anedge of the vacuum glass module, to enable the second interval to forman enclosed space.
 5. The heat insulation door according to claim 1,wherein the door body further comprises a rear protective layer locatedbehind the second glass along the front-to-rear direction, to cover thesecond glass.
 6. The heat insulation door according to claim 5, whereinthe protruding portion of the front decoration plate extends out of therear protective layer in the width and/or length direction of the firstglass.
 7. The heat insulation door according to claim 5, wherein thereis a third interval between the rear protective layer and the vacuumglass module.
 8. The heat insulation door according to claim 7, whereina third sealing portion is provided between an edge of the rearprotective layer and the edge of the vacuum glass module, to enablethird interval to form an enclosed space.
 9. The heat insulation dooraccording to claim 5, wherein the rear protective layer is bonded to thevacuum glass module.
 10. The heat insulation door according to claim 5,wherein the rear protective layer comprises a protective film thatadheres to the second glass.
 11. The heat insulation door according toclaim 1, which further comprises a doorframe surrounding the vacuumglass module, wherein the doorframe includes: a first cooperative wall,located on a rear side of the protruding portion and connected to theprotruding portion; a second cooperative wall, located behind the firstcooperative wall along the front-to-rear direction; and a connectingwall, connecting the first cooperative wall and the second cooperativewall, wherein the vacuum glass module is located between the firstcooperative wall and the second cooperative wall along the front-to-reardirection.
 12. The heat insulation door according to claim 11, whereinthe second cooperative wall is located behind the vacuum glass modulealong the front-to-rear direction, and the vacuum glass module isdirectly or indirectly connected to the second cooperative wall.
 13. Theheat insulation door according to claim 11, wherein the protrudingportion completely shields the doorframe along the front-to-reardirection of the door.
 14. The heat insulation door according to claim11, wherein the door body is provided with a sealing portion at edges oftwo adjacent layer structures having an interval, and projections ofsealing portions to the front-to-rear direction are overlapped with eachother.
 15. The heat insulation door according to claim 14, wherein thesecond cooperative wall covers the sealing portion.
 16. The heatinsulation door according to claim 5, wherein the rear protective layeris a toughened glass plate, a glass plate, or a plastic plate.
 17. Theheat insulation door according to claim 1, wherein the front decorationplate is a colorful crystal glass plate.
 18. A refrigeration appliance,comprising the heat insulation door according to claim 1.